Category Archives: music
as pure and strange as what i see,
i’d put you in the mirror
i put in front of me,
i put in front of me.
linger on, your pale blue eyes,
linger on, your pale blue eyes.
and it stoned me to my soul/ stoned me just like goin’ home/ and it stoned me.
There are three Van songs guaranteed to choke me. Bright Side Of The Road partly because of that moment in Fever Pitch and partly because of the ‘let’s enjoy it while we can’ sentiment. Days Like This for obvious and somewhat cheesy reasons. And It Stoned Me because it’s my favourite (how many times do I rewind to the start so I can hear the first line again and again). They’re all from different albums and different times but they all make me feel exactly the same way: nostalgic/happy/sad/like-my-heart-could-burst. It’s something to do with his voice being so familiar. As in before-I-could-walk familiar. I think I’ve just happened across my point: they all make me want to go home.
there are places i remember, all my life…
This song? Top ten. And perfect for right now, because on this day seven years ago, I travelled one-way up the M6 and landed in Manchester. I’ve been here ever since, so I thought it would be an appropriate time (especially as this city won’t have me for much longer) to pause and count the ways in which I love this place. All a good idea, until I realised I really wouldn’t know where to begin. There simply are no words for the people I’ve met and the times I’ve had. The Manchester Years are famous in my book and I will look back on them with a fondness like no other. If I’ve learnt anything, it’s that the good people are like magnets. So thank you, Manchester, for teaching me that.
P.s. Count yourselves lucky that I chose that song to start this post off with. The alternative would’ve been Tina Turner –Simply The Best (don’t ask). But now for the photos. These were taken (almost) seven years ago of my friend (who happens to be wearing a wig) and I, outside our halls. I seem to remember we loved them at the time. They look even more iconic now.
i couldn’t hear the robins sing – i just wouldn’t have a clue
I remember when I first watched the Concert for Bangladesh. I reckoned it probably didn’t get much more special than that. The Billy Preston That’s The Way God Planned It moment? Quite unbelievable. And then I remember finding this footage of Bob Dylan and George Harrison rehearsing If Not For You on the extras. I didn’t stop playing it for weeks. It’s the tentativeness that gets me, every time. And the bit where they laugh, of course. Too good.
